BUDAPEST, November 10. /TASS/. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban believes he and US President Donald Trump have an understanding that Hungary will be exempted from US sanctions on Russian oil indefinitely, not just for a short time.
The two leaders discussed the issue during their meeting at the White House on November 7.
"President Trump and I have a handshake agreement that Hungary will be exempted from US oil sanctions indefinitely. As long as he is the president there and I am the prime minister here, no sanctions will be imposed," Orban wrote on Facebook (banned in Russia; owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist in the country).
Orban’s post comes in the wake of unnamed US administration officials telling Reuters that Hungary would be excused from sanctions on Russian oil and gas supplies for only one year. The prime minister and Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who also took part in the White House talks, denied those claims, emphasizing that Trump never mentioned any specific timeframe. However, Szijjarto admitted that it remains unclear how US government agencies will formally word this decision in official documents.
In essence, the statements by the Hungarian government and US officials are not fundamentally at odds with each other. Even if Hungary initially receives a one-year exemption, Trump’s assurance suggests that the waiver will be automatically extended thereafter.
